Tottingi s Ptuja in Majšperka: vzpon in propad meščanske družine v zgodnjem novem veku

Category: 1.01 Original scientific paperLanguage: Original in Slovene (Abstract in Slovene and English, Summary in English) Key words: Totting family, Ptuj, Majšperk, Podravje, burghers, merchants, protestants, sixteenth century, seventeenth centuryAbstract: This paper brings new findings on the Totting burgher family from Ptuj, which at the end of the sixteenth century rose to the ranks of Hungarian lower nobility, and provides an insight into the factors and strategies that helped with that rise. The ascent of Benedict Totting was enabled by his profit-making skills and prudence in marrying off his daughters, whereby he gained rich and influential allies. Due to his contributions in either financing or supplying the anti-Ottoman defence system, Benedict rose into the lower nobility in the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. Earlier, he had acquired the lease on the valuable Lordship of (Upper) Majšperk in Styria, but in the Holy Roman Empire remained a burgher until his death. Benedict's widow Anna, who, with the support of her inter-confessional alliances, led a protestant school for girls in early seventeenth-century Ptuj, obtained Majšperk as a fief, yet the early death of the male heirs sealed the family's fate. The paper also brings new information on several burgher families from Ptuj and elsewhere, which were related or closely connected to the Tottings: Gritscher, Plösch, Strusniger, Zunggo, etc.